The first political and judicial control of Michigan by the United
States was under and by virtue of the Immortal Ordinance of 1787, which
was the Bill of Rights for the people of the territory northwest of the Ohio
river. It was scarcely less important than the Constitution of the United
States adopted the same year by the same body. It was a compact
between the original states and the people of the territory and the states to
be afterwards erected therein. It was tolerant in spirit, guaranteeing to all
persons freedom of religious belief and security in form of worship. It
was humane, extending to persons held in custody the benefit of habeas
corpus and the right of trial by jury. It was just in that it guaranteed full
compensation for property taken or services exacted of the individual for
the public benefit, and proportionate representation in the legislature.
On the other hand, it inhibited forever the infliction of cruel or unusual
punishments; the depriving a man of his liberty or property, except by
the law of the land or the judgment of his peers; the enactment of any
law impairing private contracts or engagements, bona fide, without fraud.
Finally it proclaimed that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
ever exist in the territory, other than for the punishment of crimes of
which the accused shall have been convicted."

Geographically, Michigan was included in the Northwest Territory;
but actually it was not affected by the Ordinance until nine years after its
adoption. The Jay Treaty was signed June 17, 1796, and on the eleventh
day of July, the same year, the flag of the United Stales floated over the
village and garrison of Detroit for the first time, although fifteen years had
elapsed since the close of the Revolution. The first American settlement
within the borders of Michigan was in 1793. More than a century and a
half earlier the brave and gentle Jesuit priests had established missions at
Michilimackinac and elsewhere. Even the settlement of Detroit was
begun in 1701, under the leadership of Cadillac and a Jesuit missionary,
with one hundred Frenchmen. Sixty years later the garrison and the
town surrendered to the English, who held possession thirty-five years,
and evacuated only in pursuance of [he treaty of 1796. The British again
took possession when Hull surrendered to General Brock, August 16, 1812.
This occupation, however, was little more than a year, as General Harrison
won the battle of Detroit September 29, 1813, and after that the authority
of the United States continued absolute. The records of the courts established by the French during the long period of their occupation are not
available, if indeed any were preserved. Information as to the kind of
courts and the judicial methods is dependent on tradition, and probably
the imagination or conjecture of a capable historian has sometimes supplied the facts. The descendants of the early French settlers for a century
and a half had in their veins a very considerable proportion of Indian blood.
The races fraternized and the half-breed population retained many of the
primitive ideas of justice. It is related that Robert Navarre, a royal notary
and under-delegate of the Intendant, exercised the functions of a magistrate
in 1730. The authority of the local commander was supreme and the
exercise of it despotic. Voluntary associations of merchants and traders
settled all matters of dispute between themselves by arbitration. There
were no lawyers, and judges who were appointed never came to the territory. It was the rule to send criminals! to the home government for trial.
There was one official, however, who was willing to assume all kinds of
responsibility. He was Philip de Jean, nominally a justice of the peace,
but in reality a veritable "Poo-Bah." lie not only pronounced the death
sentence upon prisoners found guilty of larceny, but in two or three
instances, was the "Lord High Executioner," to carry out the sentence.
One of these unfortunate culprits was a woman accused of stealing fifty
dollars from her employer. This notorious magistrate had been a notary
under the French regime, and was a legacy to the English succession much
esteemed by Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, the arbitrary local ruler,
who came after the treaty of 1763. Philip de Jean may be counted as
the first Supreme Court with all of the paraphernalia and instruments for
the conduct of a trial and the execution of its own decrees. In a very
interesting article on the early "Judicial System." published in the "Magazine of Western History," the late Judge Campbell says:

"The celebrated Quebec Act of 1774 provided that the civil law of
Paris and the criminal law of England should prevail in this region. In
1778 the region was formally included in the district of Hesse, and Detroit
was made the seat of justice. William Dumpier Powell was the first judge
who presided over the court, and afterwards was Chief Justice of Upper
Canada. Prom this time on the courts sat regularly. Besides the first
court, there were courts of common pleas and quarter sessions. The common pleas judges were all reputable laymen, and the courts were held in
high esteem. Louis Beaufait was the first Chief Judge and James May,
Patrick McNiff, Charles Dirardin and Nathaniel Williams were associates.
All were old citizens, familiar with the French and English, and allied by
marriage or blood with the French inhabitants. Things continued in this
shape until Jay's Treaty went into operation in 1796, when the British
courts were removed to the other side of the river."

The authority of the United States was then extended over the region
and the Ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory became
operative therein. The officers were a governor, a secretary and three
judges, who composed the Supreme Court. The government had already
existed for eight years, with headquarters first at Marietta, and afterwards
at Cincinnati. It was subsequently (in 1800) removed to Chillicothe. The
judges, with the governor, constituted a legislature, empowered to compile
laws selected from the statutes of the original states, but not to enact
original laws. All of the legislation was subject to the approval of Congress. The new territory acquired by the Jay Treaty, which included a
strip of Northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and all of Michigan and Wisconsin, which contained settlements, was attached to the Northwest Territory as the county of Wayne. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the
first appropriation for a court in Detroit after it came under control of the
United States was in this year, and the sum appropriated was eighty-five
dollars. Winthrop Sergeant, Secretary of the Territory, was then acting
governor. The judges were John Cleves Symmes (one of the three originally appointed in 1787), General Rufus Putnam, and George Turner. One
session of the Supreme Court was held in Detroit annually, and Judge
Symmes, who lived near Cincinnati, never missed a session, until the territory was divided by setting oil Ohio in 1800; although it was necessary
to make the entire journey on horseback. At the same time 1800) the
Territory of Indiana was erected with jurisdiction over the remaining portion of the Northwest Territory. In his introduction to "Michigan," of
the American Commonwealth Series, Judge Cooley says what is pertinent
here:

"The changes of sovereign as well as of subordinate jurisdiction have
been greater in Michigan than in any other part of the American Union.
France, Great Britain and the United States have successively had dominion over it, and under the United States it was part of the Northwest
Territory and of the Territory of Indiana before it became the Territory
of Michigan. As Michigan Territory it passed though all the grades of
subordinate jurisdiction, and the circumstances attending its admission to
the Union made its history at that period quite unique."

General William Henry Harrison was appointed Governor of Indiana
Territory, and his efforts to introduce negro slavery may be mentioned as
one of the curious facts of history. Several petitions were sent to Congress praying to have the Ordinance of '87 suspended for a term of years
so that slave labor might be employed. The first petition was ignored, the
second received a favorable committee report, but failed in the house; a
third was under consideration when the subject was brought into the courts
for an opinion. The Chief Justice of the Territory settled the question by
a decision from which there was no appeal. He declared it could not
exist in the Territory either by the law of nations, the common law, or
domestic legislation. He held that the ordinance was absolutely inhibitive
and concluded as follows; "I am therefore bound to say, and do say, that
a right of property in the human species cannot exist in this territory,
except as to persons in the actual possession of the British settlers on the
sixteenth day of June, 1796, and that every man coming into the territory
is by the law of the land a free man, unless he be a fugitive from lawful
labor and service in some other American state or territory; and then he
must be restored."

By an Act of Congress January 11, 1805, Indiana Territory was
divided. Its north boundary was fixed by a line extending cast from
the most southerly bend of Lake Michigan until it intersected Lake Erie.
The Territory of Michigan, set off during the same year, was bounded on
the south by the line mentioned; on the west by another line drawn north
from the first through the middle of Lake Michigan to its northern extremity, and thence north to the boundary of the United States. The British
possessions were on the north and east. A separate territorial government, modeled after that of the Northwest Territory, was erected for
Michigan June 30, 1805. The principal settlement was of course at
Detroit, whose population was about four thousand. It had been incorporated as a town three years before, and was incorporated as a city a
year after.

The history of jurisprudence in Michigan, so far as it relates to the
Supreme Court, is properly divided into four epochs: First, from 1805 to
1823; second, from 1824 to 1835; third, 183610 [850; fourth, after 1850.
Within the fourth period several modifications have taken place. During
the first epoch the Supreme Court consisted of three judges, appointed
by the President of the United Stales, with the consent of the Senate.
These judges sat as a court with common law jurisdiction, and as a
legislative body with the governor ex-officio as chairman. The court had
exclusive jurisdiction of land cases and capital offenses; concurrent jurisdiction in ail other civil cases where the amount in controversy was of the
value of two hundred dollars. The territory was divided into three districts and it was provided that one of the Supreme Judges should preside
in each district, with two associates who were laymen. These districts
were designated as Detroit, Erie and Huron; and Mackinaw district was
added soon afterwards. Inferior courts were organized for the transaction
of small civil business. The titles to lands were practically indefinable, or
at least questionable, and the confusion was intensified by the burning of
Detroit and destruction of the records during the first year of territorial
existence. Far the most complicated business of the court was found in
the ascertainment and determination of titles to realty. Congress came
to the rescue in 1807, with an act providing that title to lots and lands
should be vested in the persons who had been in possession since 1796.

President Jefferson appointed for the first governor General William
Hull, of Massachusetts, a man of large ability and excellent reputation,
who had been prominent in civil office and military command; a man of
refined manners and little adaptability to conditions on the frontier. For
judges the President appointed Augustus Brevoort Woodward, Samuel
Huntington and Frederick Rales. Judge Huntington, who was one of the
judges of the first Supreme Court of Ohio, and afterwards governor of that
state, declined to serve, and John Griffin was appointed in his place.
Woodward was in many respects a remarkable character — original, certainly. He was possessed of considerable ability and a great deal of intellectual force. He had a liberal knowledge of the law, considerable learning
and more pedantry. He was a strange compound, frequently stubborn
and wrong-headed — generally audacious and capricious. He was responsible for the plat of Detroit, which was laid out on a scale of magnificence quite
out of harmony with the times and the surroundings. Broad avenues,
starting from a common center which he styled the Circus Maximus, were
projected far into the woods, and located by the aid of astronomical instruments. Although his scheme as a whole was impracticable, the visitor to
Detroit as it stands to-day will find a city more beautiful for the nightly
vigils and consultations of the heavenly bodies by the first Chief Justice,
when he planned and platted the "City of the Straits." Another marvelous creation of his mind was the Catholepistemiad, incorporated in 1817,
with an array of professorships bearing unpronounceable Greek and Latin
titles; govemail by a president, vice president and other officials. While
you smile at the conceit and vagaries of the man whose peculiar genius is
shadowed forth by this dream, do not fail to remember that the Catholepist of the eccentric Chief Justice has become the University of Michigan, to which so many lawyers of the state are debtors. Judge Woodward
quarrelled with every member of the court whom he could not control.
His henchman was Judge Griffin, and it was not unusual to witness a deadlock in matters of legislation between Woodward and Griffin on one side,
and Governor Hull and Judge Bates on the other. The quarrels were frequent and unseemly; so that Judge Bates, a man of high character and
honorable purpose, resigned after two years of service and removed to St.
Louis, where he won distinction at the bar. James Witherell was
appointed to succeed Bates. He was a good lawyer, an upright judge.
Firm in his own convictions he could not be influenced by another to favor
legislation or a judicial decision which his conscience did not approve.
He remained a member of the court to the end of the first epoch and was
reappointed under the second.

In March, 1823, Congress enacted a law transferring the legislation to
the governor and a council of nine citizens, appointed by the President and
selected from eighteen elected by the people of the territory. Sessions of
sixty days were authorized for legislation and all laws were subject to the
approval of Congress. By the same law the term of judges of the Supreme Court was reduced to four years, and their powers were enlarged
by extending them to equity cases. It was further provided that all offices
should be vacated February 1, 1824, in order that the new system might
be inaugurated in an orderly manner. The first court under the second
epoch was composed of James Witherell Chief Justice, Solomon Sibley and
John Hunt. In 1827 Henry Chipman was appointed to fill a vacancy
occasioned by the death of Judge Hunt. Judge Witherell resigned in
1828 to accept the secretary ship of the territory and was succeeded by
William Woodbridge, of Connecticut, who was secretary' of the territory
at the time of his appointment to the bench. The two simply exchanged
offices, by the aid of the President and consent of the Senate.
In 1827 Judge Sibley was reappointed and made Chief Justice. His
associates appointed at the same time were George Morell. of New York,
and Ross Wilkins. of Pennsylvania. All three of these were reappointed
in 1832 and served the admission of Michigan as a state in the Union.
During the first epoch the judges, with their respective terms of service
were: Augustus H. Woodward and John Wilkins, from 1805 to 1823;
Frederick Hates, from 1805 to 1807; James Witherell, from 1808 to 1823
— only four during the period of eighteen years. In the second epoch of
thirteen years, seven judges were appointed, one of whom died in office:
James Witherell, 1824 to 1828; Solomon Sibley, 1824 to 1837; John
Hunt, 1824 to 1827; Henry Chipman, 1827 to 1832; William Woodbridge, 1828 to 1832: George Morel I, 1832 to 1837; Ross Wilkins. 1832
to 1837.

Solomon Sibley is described in history as "one of the wisest and best
men that ever lived in Michigan." The judges who sat with him were
lawyers of respectable talents and most of them men of high character.
Henry Chipman was a native of Vermont, practiced law some years in
South Carolina, and removed to Detroit prior to his appointment. His
record on the bench is clean, and long after his retirement lie was a
respected citizen of the state.

WOOD BRIDGE. William Woodbridge was a native of Connecticut,
was principally educated there, though soon after the Revolutionary War
his father emigrated with his family to Marietta, on the Ohio river, where
he spent some years of his youth, and several of his active professional life.
He came to Detroit in 1814, having been appointed secretary of the territory by President Madison. He was a man of marked ability, of courteous manners, of liberal learning in the law. of considerable general culture,
and a commanding figure in the history of the territory and of the early
years of the state. He was a member of the convention which framed the
state constitution of 1835, became governor in 1840, and was United
States senator from 1841 to 1847. All of which positions he filled with
ability and fidelity. He died in 1861.

WILKINS was a native of Pittsburg and resident of that city at the
time of his appointment to the territorial judgeship. Before the admission
of the state into the Union he was appointed Judge of the United States
District Court, and discharged the duties of that office until 1871, when he
availed himself of the option of retiring on full pay, having passed the
mark of seventy years. He was a member of the regular constitutional
convention of 1836, and also of the irregular convention held in December
of the same year, to accept the proposition of Congress giving the Upper
Peninsula in exchange for the strip claimed and taken by the state of Ohio.
He was a man of fine legal acquirements and made a very respectable
judge. He had some brilliant qualities useful to the advocate, but his
mind was not eminently judicial or well balanced.

The stale having attained a population of sixty thousand, a convention was held in 1835. The constitution framed by this convention was
ratified by popular vote and the enabling act for the admission of the state
was approved June 15, 1836, after much wrangling over a strip of disputed
territory embracing four hundred and seventy square miles, over which
Ohio had extended her jurisdiction despite the fact that it was outside of
the original boundary line setting off her territory. Although the subsequent
irregular proceedings by which the convention accepted a compromise occasioned much dissatisfaction and discontent, the sober second thought commended the solution because it was peaceful. A deliberate judicial
opinion today would doubtless affirm that the state of Michigan profited
by the bargain.

The constitution, which became operative upon the admission of the
state, provided for a division of the state into three circuits and the
appointment of three Judges of the Supreme Court, each to hold court in
the several counties of his circuit, and all of whom should sit together, as
a court in band, to consider and determine appeals. The powers of these
judges in circuit were restricted and their labors correspondingly reduced
by a provision in the constitution for a separate court of chancery. To
this court was granted exclusive primary jurisdiction of all chancery cases,
with the right of appeal from the chancellor to the Supreme Court. The
judges were appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, for
a term of seven years. The first Supreme Court was composed of William
A. Fletcher, Chief Justice, George Morel! and Epaphroditus Ransom,
Associate Justices. The circuit assigned to the Chief Justice comprised
the counties of Monroe, Lenawee, Hillsdale, Jackson, Washtenaw, Oakland and Saginaw; that assigned to Judge Morell comprised Wayne, St.
Clair, Lapeer, Michilimackinac (which lias since been abbreviated) and
Chippewa; that assigned to Judge Ransom comprised Berrien, Cass, St.
Joseph, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Allegan, Kent. As under the territorial
system two associates were chosen for each county, who were not necessarily lawyers and whose presence on the bench was not essential to the
validity of a proceeding; they were elected for a term of four years. The
Supreme Court was a peripatetic body under this constitution, holding one
term each year in Wayne, Washtenaw and Kalamazoo counties. Judge
Fletcher resigned in 1842, and Alphcus Filch was appointed in 1843 to
succeed him as a member of the court, while Judge Morell succeeded him
as Chief Justice. Daniel Goodwin succeeded Judge Morell. Warner
Wing succeeded Judge Filch, when the latter was elected governor in 1845.
Other Judges of the Supreme Court under the first constitution were Sanford M. Green, appointed in 1847 to succeed Judge Ransom, Daniel Good-
win, George Miles, Abner Pratt, Edward Munday, George Martin and
Charles Wiley Whipple (who was appointed in 1838 to preside over an
additional circuit created by statute). The whole number appointed and
in service from 1837 to 1850 was twelve. Such of the Judges of the
Supreme Court as are not represented in this volume by portrait and biography are briefly sketched in this article.

FLETCHER. Chief Justice Fletcher came to Michigan several years
before the organization of the State government, as one of the commissioners for that purpose, lie rendered valuable service in preparing the
compilation of Territorial Laws, known as the Code of 1827, and the first
Revision of the Statutes of the State known as Revised Statutes 1838, was
prepared by him and under his supervision. He was a man of commanding presence, a good lawyer and an able judge.

MORELL. George Morell, who was appointed a member of the first
Supreme Court under the State Constitution, had been one of the Judges
of the Territorial Court for five years prior to that time. He was a Massachusetts man by birth and education, but came to the territory of Michigan
from New York State, where he had gained considerable reputation as a
practising lawyer. He had learned in the old school and his training as a
lawyer was not excelled by that of any other Judge on the bench: but he
was not always temperate, and sometimes incapacitated for severe application.

RANSOM. Epaphroditus Ransom was a native of Shelburne Falls,
Massachusetts, born in 1797. He read law under the instruction of Judge
Taft, at Townsend, Vermont, with the Judge's son, Alphonso Taft, the
eminent jurist and statesman, late of Cincinnati, and father of Judge William H. Taft, of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. He was
graduated from the Northampton Law School in 1823, and achieved considerable prominence both in the law and politics in the state of Vermont.
He settled in Michigan in 1834. His residence was in the beautiful village
(now city) of Kalamazoo, which is the commercial center of one of the best
agricultural regions of the state. At one time he was a proprietor of considerable real estate in and adjacent to the village, much of which was
devoted to agriculture. He took a deep interest in agriculture and was
mainly instrumental in organizing the Stale Agricultural Society. He
was a man of large stature, dignified and commanding presence, genial
manners, of strict integrity, and of good sense and fair legal attainments.
These qualities made him a very popular Circuit Judge. Without being
in any sense a great jurist, he was a very respectable one. and a safe, conservative and valuable member of the Supreme Court. It may be doubted
whether a judicial career was entirely congenial to his taste or satisfied his
ambition. January 1, 1848, and before the end of his second term as a
member of the Supreme Court, he became governor of the state, the
duties of which he discharged with fidelity and ability. From that vantage
ground he aspired, but unsuccessfully, to the office of United States senator. The expiration of his term as governor was the end of his public
career in Michigan. In politics he was a staunch democrat and strongly
opposed to the extension of slavery. In private life he was a very enterprising and public-spirited citizen.

GOODWIN. Daniel Goodwin was born at Geneva, New York, in
January, 1709, and died in Detroit at the age of eighty-seven. He was
graduated from Union College, having for associates and classmates some
of the most eminent men of his native state. He settled in Detroit in
1825, where his father was a prominent physician. He was appointed
United States District Attorney by President Jackson, and was a member
of the "snap convention" which accepted the terms imposed by Congress
as a condition of the admission of Michigan into the Union. He was
appointed Justice of the Supreme Court and Judge of the First Circuit
(which included Wayne county) for the term commencing July 18, 1843.
He remained upon the bench until October, 1846, and then returned for a
time to private practice. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, and the next year was elected Judge of the Upper Peninsula,
and was continued in that office by re-elections until failing health compelled his retirement. His service on the bench extended over a period
of about thirty years. He was a man of small stature, dark complexion,
reserved, quiet and unassuming manners, and unquestioned integrity.
He was a cautious, painstaking and studious lawyer, of a clear and vigorous intellect, distinguished perhaps more for acuteness than grasp, and a
learned, safe and conservative judge. He filled every public position he
occupied with honor to himself and credit to the state.

WlNG. Judge Warner Wing was born in Marietta, Ohio, in September, 1805. He was of New England stock, his father having been a native
of Conway, Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Litchfield Law School.
He came to Michigan while it was yet a territory and settled at Monroe,
where he always continued to reside. He was a member of the Supreme
Court, first by appointment, and afterwards by election, and Presiding
Judge of the First and temporarily of the Second Circuit, from the autumn
of 1846 to the organization of a separate Supreme Court in 1858. After
that he returned to the practice of his profession, acting for many of the
later years of his life as counsel for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railroad Company. He was a man of medium stature, of a florid complexion, of an ardent and impulsive temperament, modest and unassuming
manners, and a very genial and companionable disposition. He had a
great flow of wit and humor which added zest to his companionship. He
was thoroughly upright and conscientious, of good judgment and clear
insight as to the credibility of witnesses and the force of evidence. His
legal acquirements were respectable, and he was industrious and painstaking
in the discharge of his judicial duties. His judgments were almost always
correct and commanded the respect and confidence of the bar and the public. He seemed to be greatly aided in forming his conclusions by his
sound and delicate moral sense, and a sort of feminine and unanalysable
intuition. His exposition of the reasons for his judgment, especially when
delivered orally — from want of logical order and method — sometimes
failed to do justice to the judgments themselves. He was very conservative in matters of jurisprudence as well as in other things, and but little
disposed to question established precedents. He was always a sincere
democrat in politics, but never an extreme or active partisan.

MILLS. George Miles was born of New England parents, at Amsterdam. New York. He educated himself and took sufficient time
to be thorough in his preparation for the practice of law; was admitted to
the bar in 1822, and afterwards served as attorney for Allegheny county,
New York. He was a well trained lawyer of respectable talents. The
opinions which he prepared were concise and direct in reaching the points
involved in any controversy. He died suddenly in 1849 while holding
court at Marshall. He was a gentleman of fine address and good character,
presiding on the bench with great dignity.

PRATT. Abner Pratt was a native of Otsego county. New York, and
was born in 1801. lie was reared upon a farm and had very limited educational advantages, and but little early education, He went through
some pretty rough experiences in early manhood, some of them on a Mississippi river flatboat, after which, rather late in life, he studied law
and was admitted to the bar. After a brief professional experience in
Rochester. New York, he came to Michigan, locating in Marshall. This
was in 1839. There he soon became quite prominent as a lawyer and
acquired a good practice. He was a Justice of the Supreme Court and
Presiding Judge of a Circuit Court from 1851 until his resignation in 1857,
soon after which be was appointed consul at Honolulu. He was a man of
medium height, of muscular frame and strongly marked features; of frank
and genial, but not very polished manners. He had considerable fund of
humor and was a good story teller. His comic delineation of western life
as he saw it, and of his own experiences on the Mississippi, were inimitable. He was a man of vigorous but undisciplined intellect, of much
knowledge of human nature, and a goodly share of common sense. He
was very decided in his opinions and in his likes and dislikes, and those
usually found expression in very strong language, the emphasis of which
he often endeavored to increase by the use of expletives. On the whole
he was a unique and striking personality, and notwithstanding deficiencies
which better early opportunities might have supplied, he was a very respectable judge.

MUNDY. Edward Mundy was born in New Jersey in 1794; was
graduated at Rutgers and settled in the state of Illinois in 1819. He was
a merchant in early life, both in his native state and in the west; removed
to Michigan In 1831 and was admitted to the bar of the state in 1834. He
was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1835, served as lieutenant governor with Governor Mason, and was elected attorney general in 1847.

Five of the judges who had served by appointment under the Constitution of 1835 were elected members of the first court chosen under the
Constitution of 1850, thus forming a connecting link between the old and
the new. Some modifications of the judicial system were made by the
framers of the second constitution. The Court of Chancery, with the
office of Chancellor was abolished, and the Circuit Courts were granted
chancery powers. The state was divided into eight judicial circuits, with
a judge elected for each circuit by the state at large, for a term of six
years. The eight judges presiding in these circuits constituted the
Supreme Court of the state when sitting in band. The appeals from any
of the circuits were heard and determined by the Supreme Court. The
legislature was authorized, after six years, to provide for an independent
Supreme Court composed of four judges who should not be required to
preside in a trial court. It was further provided that the judges should
be elected by popular vote. The eight judges first chosen under this constitution were Warner Wing. Sanford M. Green, Charles Wiley Whipple,
Abner Pratt and George Martin, who had served under the first constitution; and Samuel Townsend Douglass, John Skinner Goodrich and
David Johnson, then elected for the first time. Judge Goodrich died
before qualifying, and Joseph Tarr Copeland was appointed to fill the
vacancy. Judge Whipple died in 1855, and Nathaniel Bacon was
appointed in his place. Judge Wing resigned in 1856 and was succeeded
by Edward Hancock Custis Wilson. Before the end of the term for which
the first judges were elected there was something of a revolution in
the political sentiment of Michigan. The republican party had been
organized and was strong enough to carry the election in that slate in
1857. The legislature whose session was held in January of that year,
took action under the authority granted by the constitution and made
provision for a separate Supreme Court. The four judges elected to constitute that court were George Martin, Randolph Manning, Isaac P. Christiancy and James V. Campbell. As Judge Martin had served under the
first constitution and also as one of the eight judges under the second
constitution, he was designated as the Chief justice, and the other three
were Associate Justices. (The original act for the constitution of an independent Supreme Court required that the Chief Justice should be designated by the voters, but in 1867 this was changed by devolving the chief
justiceship upon that one of the judges whose terms of office should soonest expire.) Immediately after the election Judges Douglass, Pratt, Green
and Johnson, who had been defeated as candidates of their party, resigned
in order to re-enter the practice without waiting for the term of the newly
elected judges to begin, and the Governor forthwith appointed Benjamin F.
H. Witherell, Benjamin F. Graves. Josiah Turner and Edward Lawrence to
fill the vacancies. The independent Supreme Court was organized January
1, 1858. The term provided by the legislature was eight years, and so
arranged that one judge should retire at the end of each period of two
years, and the one longest in service should act as Chief Justice for the last
two years of his term. Since 1857 the Supreme Court judges have not
been required to sit in the circuits. In 1887 the number of judges was
increased to five and the term fixed at ten years. The provision for the
retirement of a judge at the end of each period of two years, and that of
1867 with reference to the Chief Justice were retained.

MARTIN. George Martin, who was carried over by election to the
first Supreme Court under the second constitution, was the son of an innkeeper in Middlebury, Vermont, born in 1815. He was educated at
Middlebury College, came to Michigan in 1836 and settled at Grand
Rapids. He held the office of prosecuting attorney, but no other office
until his election as one of the judges of the Supreme Court under the
circuit system. He was re-elected twice, was Chief justice for a few years
and died in office December 15. 1867. His long term of judicial service
indicates qualities which secured considerable personal popularity. He
was a man below medium stature, of pleasing address, agreeable manners
and amiable disposition. He had quick perception, was a fluent though
not strong speaker, and a graceful and facile writer. He was not in the
least opinionated or dogmatic. On the contrary, his great defect was the
want of strong and earnest convictions. He was never profound, but
always plausible and too easily satisfied with plausibility. He was constitutionally indolent and. like other indolent judges, too much inclined to dispose of cases on some technical ground which would avoid the labor of
disposing of them upon their merits. On the whole, it cannot be said that
the jurisprudence is largely indebted to him. On the other hand, it is not
seriously marred by his defects. For his associates on the Bench of the
independent Supreme Court were all men of decided character and of
marked ability. Truth compels us to add that in the later years of his
life he became very intemperate.

MANNING. Randolph Manning was born at Plainfield, New Jersey,
in 1804, read law in New York, where he practised for a short time, and
settled at Pontiac, Michigan, in 1832. Me was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 183$, a senator in 1837, secretary of the State in
1840. and chancellor in 1842. which latter office he continued to hold
until the office was abolished in 1847. Soon afterward he was appointed
Reporter of the Supreme Court, which office he held until the close of the
year 1850. He was elected a Justice of that Court in 1858, and was a
member of it until his decease in 1864. He was a man of very simple and
natural tastes, of unostentatious and genial, though sometimes reserved
manners, of unquestioned integrity and sincerity, of strong and earnest
convictions, thorough independence and a love of right and justice which
was almost a passion. He was a learned lawyer. His opinions were
always carefully and conscientiously prepared and clearly and concisely
expressed. They are highly creditable contributions to the jurisprudence
of the state. Within the range of his intellectual vision, he saw everything
very clearly and distinctly, but he was sometimes wanting in breadth of
view and in that sort of intuition which makes some men almost unerring
judges of the value of human testimony.

WHIPPLE. Charles Wiley Whipple was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana
in 1805. He was the son of Major John Whipple, an officer of the War
of 1812, who won some notoriety in being fined for contempt by Judge
Woodward, of the First Territorial Court of Michigan. The offense consisted in uncomplimentary remarks made on the street concerning that
jurist. It was about the time when the factional quarrel in this court as a
legislature was most bitter. Governor Hull remitted the fine, and at the
instance of Judge Woodward was indicted by the grand jury for the exercise of such clemency. Judge Whipple was a graduate of West Point and
afterwards studied law. He was secretary of the Constitutional Convention of 1835, and President Judge of a circuit in 1850, succeeding Judge
Ransom as Chief Justice. He died in 1855, and was succeeded by
Nathaniel Bacon. His service on the Bench was long and creditable.

JOHNSON. David Johnson was born in Sangerfield, New York, in
1809. He was admitted to the bar in that state and practised for a brief
period in Genesee county. He came to Michigan and settled in Jackson
in 1837. In politics he was a sincere and earnest democrat. He was honorable, high-minded and conscientious; of an ardent temperament and of
a genial and social disposition, of quick, active and subtle intelligence.
He soon took rank as a good lawyer and able advocate. He served one
term in the legislature with considerable distinction, and was afterwards
elected Circuit Judge and Justice of the Supreme Court for a term of six
years, commencing January 1, 1857. He resigned shortly before the term
expired and was nominated as one of the Justices of the new Supreme
Court which came into existence January I, 1858, but his party then and
long afterwards remained in a hopeless minority, and he was defeated. He
was very popular as a Circuit Judge, and an able and useful member of the
Supreme Court. lie was endowed with masculine sense and very well
schooled in the principles of the law. Moreover, he was high-toned, independent, impartial and abundantly proof against the acts and influences
which so often beset a judicial career.

BACON. Nathaniel Bacon was born in Ballston, New York, in 1802,
was graduated from Union College, studied law at Ballston Springs, and
practised five years in Rochester before settling in Niles, Michigan, in
1833. He was prosecuting attorney in 1847, but held no other office
except that of judge, and filled the judicial office only for the remainder
of Judge Whipple's term. Politically he was a whig of the anti-slavery
school, and a charter member of the republican party; a strong advocate
of temperance, and a Presbyterian elder.

WILSON. Edward H. C. Wilson, appointed in November, 1856, to
succeed Judge Wing, was a native of the eastern shore of Maryland, born
August 6, 1820. He was graduated from Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, at the age of eighteen, studied law in his native state,
and came to Michigan in 1845. He was prosecuting attorney of Hillsdale
county for a term, and Circuit Judge for two terms. His service on the
Supreme Bench extended over a period of little more than a year.

WITHERELL. Benjamin F. H. Witherell had the distinction of serving as the successor of Judge Douglass, by appointment, from May, 1857, to
December 31st of the same year. He was a son of Judge James Witherell,
of territorial fame; born in Fairhaven, Vermont, in August 1797, and
came to the territory of Michigan with his father in boyhood. He was a
member of the legislature in the forties, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. He inherited a predilection for the law and was to some
extent devoted to literature. He was chosen President of the State Historical Society, and gave to its affairs considerable attention. As a presiding
judge he pronounced the only death sentence upon a convict in the state
of Michigan, and in that case the prisoner was fortunate enough to escape.
Turner. Josiah Turner served as Judge of the Supreme Court by
appointment of the Governor from May to December 31, 1837, vice Johnson resigned. He was born at New Haven, educated at St. Albans and
Middlebury College, Vermont, and came to Michigan in 1838. He had
held the office of county judge, was probate judge at the time of his
appointment to the Supreme Bench, and afterwards held the office of
Circuit Judge until 1881. In early life he was a democrat, but became a
republican upon the organization of that party. He was appointed United
States Consul to Amherstburgh. Ontario, by President Garfield, and served
through that and the two succeeding administrations.

LAWRENCE. Edward Lawrence was a native of Middlebury, Vermont, and came to Michigan upon the completion of his education in 1836.
He was a journalist for some time, publishing the "Michigan State Journal;"
was a member of the legislature, was nominated three times as the unsuccessful whig candidate for Congress, and generally active in politics. His
service on the Supreme Bench was from May to December, 1857, to fill
the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Johnson. He was a
good lawyer and a man of marked ability.

under the constitution of 1850, as modified and made operative by
the law of 1857, the changes and succession of Judges in the Supreme
Court have been as follows: Judge Manning died in 1864. and was succeeded by Thomas M. Cooley, who was first appointed to fill the vacancy
and then elected in 1865 for the remainder of the term, and re-elected
twice; serving continuously until May, 1885, when he resigned to accept
the chairmanship of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Judge Campbell was re-elected three times, served twenty-two years and died in office
March, 1890. Edward Cahill, of Lansing, was appointed to fill the vacancy
occasioned by Judge Campbell's death, and served from March to December 31, 1890. Judge Christiancy was re-elected twice and resigned in February, 1875. lo accept the office of senator of the United States. Isaac
Marston was appointed to fill the vacancy and elected for the residue of
that term. He was then re-elected as his own successor for a full term,
which expired December 31, 1889. He resigned in February, 1883. and
Thomas R. Sherwood was appointed and then elected to fill the unexpired portion of the term. John W. Champlin, of Grand Rapids, was
elected in 1883 and served one term of eight years, which expired December 31, 1891. Allen B. Morse, of Ionia, was appointed for the residue of
Judge Cooley's term. He had already been elected for the term beginning January i, 1886. His service on the Bench continued until August
30, 1892 when he resigned. Charles D. Long was elected in 1887 for a
term of ten years beginning January 1, 1888. John W. McGrath of
Detroit, was elected in 1890 for the residue of Judge Campbell's term,
and served from January 1, 1891, to December 31, 1895. Claudius B.
Grant, of Marquette, was elected in 1890 for a full term of ten years.
Robert M. Montgomery was elected in 1892 for a full term. George H.
Durand, of Flint, was appointed in 1892 to fill a vacancy for a few months,
occasioned by the resignation of Judge Morse. Frank A. Hooker was
elected first in November, 1892, for the residue of the term of Judge
Morse, and was elected in 1894 for a full term, beginning January 1, 1895.
Joseph B. Moore was elected in 1895 for the term beginning January 1,
1896. The personnel of the court at present is Charles D. Long, Claudius
B. Grant, Robert M. Montgomery, Frank A. Hooker, and Joseph B.
Moore. Charles H. Hopkins is Clerk and William D. Fuller, of Grand
Rapids, Reporter.

Recapitulation. The whole number of judges of the Supreme
Court who served during the territorial period was eleven, and the time
covered was thirty-two years. The number of different Judges who
served under the first constitution was twelve, and the period was fourteen years. The number who served during the seven years of the circuit
system under the second constitution was fourteen. The number of
Judges who have served since 1857 is eighteen. The Supreme Court
Judges of the territory were appointed by the President with the advice
and consent of the senate. Under the first constitution of the state the
Judges were appointed by the Governor, or nominated by him and confirmed by the senate during the sessions of the legislature. The second
constitution provided for their election by popular vote, empowering the
Governor only to fill vacancies, by appointment, until the election next
succeeding. The term under the first grade of territorial government was
limited only by the good behavior of the incumbent; under the second
grade it was fixed at four years. Under the first constitution the term
was seven years, both for Judge of the Supreme Court and the Chancellor.
The second constitution fixed the term of the judges of the first court
at six years, and authorized the legislature to provide by law for an independent Supreme Court at the end of that period, whose term should be
eight years. This term obtained until 1887, when it was fixed at ten
years. The constitutional jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is original as
to writs of error—habeas corpus, mandamus, quo warranto and procedendo
—and other remedial writs. In all other cases its jurisdiction is appellate
only. Prior to 1851 no session of the Supreme Court was held at Lansing.
The revised laws of 1846 required a term annually at Detroit, Kalamazoo
Jackson and Pontiac. The first statutory provision under the Constitution
of 1850 was for a term annually at Detroit, Kalamazoo, Adrian and Pontiac; but a little later provision was made for a fifth term annually, to
be held in Lansing. The statute regulating the independent Supreme
Court provided for two annual terms at Detroit in January and July, with
two intercalary terms at Lansing in May and October. Two years later
the May term was changed to April, and since 1873 all of the terms have
been held in Lansing. The only subsequent change made in the calendar
was made in 1875. substituting June for July.

A system of Circuit Courts created in 1833 and perpetuated in the
first constitution required the Circuit Judge to be a lawyer, and provided
for two associates who were usually laymen. The old Circuit Courts in
which one of the Judges of the Supreme Court was required to preside was
not supplanted by this innovation.

The territorial laws were first collected and codified in 1800, in a
volume printed at Washington and called "Woodward's Code." There
was no further revision and scarcely a pretense of publishing the laws
until 1821, when a second codification was completed by the territorial
officers under the leadership and direction of William Woodbridge, then
secretary. Much confusion resulted in the meantime, and even this collection was found to be very imperfect. A commission of able lawyers, consisting of William Woodbridge, Abraham Edwards, John Stockton, Wolcott Lawrence, and William A. Fletcher, was appointed to make a
thorough revision of all the laws, with appropriate digest, placing in a
single act all that related to the same subject. The commission was
empowered to omit such acts as were in a state of innocuous desuetude,
and to alter or amend any others at their discretion. The work was done
in a very able and satisfactory manner without any change in the personnel
of the commission, except that Asa M. Robinson, was substituted for Mr.
Woodbridge, who resigned. The legislature of 1837 provided for a careful revision of the laws and appointed Judge William A. Fletcher commissioner for the work. It was carelessly or at least quite imperfectly done.
A very systematic and complete revision was made by Judge Sanford M.
Green under appointment in 1846. Among other things accomplished by
this revision was the abolishment of capital punishment in Michigan.
Another complete and methodical compilation of the laws was made by
Judge Cooley, at special commissioner appointed for the purpose in 1857,
and his excellent work was the basis of a compilation in 1871 by Judge
Dewey. The work of these several commissions has materially aided the
Supreme Court by rendering their researches less laborious, and therefore
have been deemed worthy of mention in this connection.

The Supreme Court of Michigan has always been respectable and
sometimes eminent. Its original decisions declaring the law as to important questions not theretofore adjudicated take high rank. They are
quoted as frequently, and accepted as generally, as the most noteworthy
opinions of the highest courts of any other state. Its opinions usually
indicate painstaking and carefulness in research, thoughtfulness, precision
and exactness in expression. The Bench has given to the state several
governors, to the United States several senators, and to the world some
of the most distinguished jurists and publicists of the age. The individual
judges have almost uniformly been men of probity and uprightness. In
their judicial work they have been actuated less by pride of opinion
than by a desire to ascertain and construe the law. No judge has ever
been impeached or guilty of conduct unbecoming the dignity of his exalted
office. The history of this court is the recognition of a high order of
jurisprudence. It is a perpetual illustration of the truth that the conscience and integrity of its judiciary are at once the glory and the safety
of a free state.